CHAMPAIGN – Championships in basketball are remembered for buzzer-beaters, roaring crowds and confetti falling from the rafters.
Long before any of that happens, someone is labeling video clips, coordinating travel itineraries, editing photos, washing practice gear or making sure a recruit’s family knows where to be.
Those jobs rarely make a highlight reel, but for a pair of Shannon sisters, they became front-row seats to one of the biggest moments in University of Illinois basketball history.
Macy and Mallory Misiewicz spent this past season working behind the scenes for the Fighting Illini men’s basketball program as student assistants, helping support Illinois during its run to the NCAA Final Four and a 28-9 season.
Reaching college basketball’s biggest stage gave the sisters a perspective few fans ever experience — watching months of preparation culminate in one unforgettable tournament ride.
“It’s cool for us, but we’re there to win basketball games,” Macy said. “Seeing our coaching staff put in so much work, and seeing our players, too, just how proud they were of themselves and how excited they were to be on that stage. That’s what’s pretty special to me. They put in so much work to get there.”
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For Macy, 24, reaching that stage represented years of persistence. After graduating from Eastland High School in 2020, she enrolled at Illinois, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees while waiting for an opportunity to join the basketball program. The coronavirus pandemic delayed hiring, and by the time positions opened, interviews had already closed. She waited another year, and eventually became a student assistant during her junior and senior years before serving two years as a graduate assistant while completing a second master’s degree. She holds degrees in sports and business management.
“I got my first masters done, and I was just planning on being a graduate assistant for one year,” Macy said. “It was never the plan for me to do two years. The opportunity presented itself a year ago last summer, and they asked me to come back for another year. I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’ For me, this year has meant a lot. On top of it, going to the Final Four for the first time since 2005, it just made it that much more special. And having Mal to share this experience with again is awesome.”
Mallory, 21, followed a different path to the same destination. A four-year basketball player at Eastland who graduated in 2023, today she’s studying advertising and public relations at UI — though she hadn’t necessarily planned on attending Illinois.
“In an ideal world, I probably wouldn’t have gone to U of I,” she said, but “the financial aid it offered was substantial in comparison to other schools, and you can’t really turn that down from a school like that.”
With her sister already part of the men’s basketball program, she joined it during her sophomore year. Having Macy already established within the program helped ease the transition.
“It’s super nice being in an environment in which you’re not really accustomed to,” Mallory said. “It’s always changing, and it’s nice to have someone like Macy to go to, especially if you’re unsure on something.”
The arrangement worked both ways, Macy said.
“I leaned on Mallory pretty heavily for all of the little recruiting things that I needed done,” she said. “I know the benefit of working with your sister. I knew she wouldn’t say no and she would get it done.”
Working together wasn’t anything new. The sisters had already spent five summers working side by side at Lake Carroll’s West Marina, helping operate the concession stand and fuel pumps. Their familiarity with one another made working together in Champaign feel natural. Mallory said she often looked to Macy’s example, seeing firsthand the work ethic that had earned the trust of coaches and staff. As the younger sister settled into her role, she found herself following many of the same habits – showing up prepared, volunteering for whatever needed to be done and building relationships along the way.
Their bond occasionally produced lighter moments, too. Before one pregame shoot around this season, the team gathered at half court as it routinely does before practice, but this time teammates and staff began chanting Mallory’s name, she found herself taking an unexpected half-court shot.
“It hit the front of the rim,” she said with a laugh. “I’m happy with that.”
Basketball had also long been part of their lives. Macy served as a student assistant for Eastland’s girls basketball program while the Cougars made consecutive trips to the IHSA Class 1A state tournament, finishing second in 2019 before winning the state championship in 2020. Mallory played four years for the Cougars before heading to Champaign.
At Illinois, though, the scale became something entirely different. Macy’s responsibilities this season centered largely on recruiting and basketball operations. When prospective student-athletes visited campus, she coordinated travel logistics, prepared itineraries, worked with families, completed NCAA paperwork and communicated with coaches throughout the process. On road trips away from the Illini’s usual confines of the State Farm Center, she also live-edited game photographs so Illinois’ creative and social media staff could publish images almost immediately.
Mallory’s work focused primarily on video. She broke down game film, labeling clips so coaches could quickly find specific plays during practices and scouting sessions.
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As the postseason arrived, those responsibilities multiplied. While fans spent March filling out NCAA Tournament brackets, Illinois’ support staff prepared scouting reports for multiple possible opponents at the same time. If Illinois won, coaches needed information immediately. If another team pulled an upset, countless hours of preparation might never be used. For the tournament’s second round, after the Illini opened with a win over Penn, the staff prepared six games’ worth of video for both North Carolina and VCU before either opponent had even been determined.
“No one expected VCU to win,” Mallory said.
Everything prepared for the Tar Heels instantly became unnecessary.
“All of the work that went into the team that lost just goes in the trash,” Mallory said. “But it was worth it because it preps us and makes the transitions way easier.”
The attention to detail only intensified as Illinois advanced deeper into March. Illinois reeled off wins over Houston and Iowa to advance to the Final Four at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis — also home to the Colts of the NFL. UConn, who would go on to finish as runner-up to Michigan, ended their season.
“The video prep that we do for postseason is insane,” Macy said. “We’re very meticulous and very detail-oriented, like being down to the minute of every opponent’s game when we’re prepping that for our coaching staff.”
All of that work eventually led to college basketball’s biggest stage. Growing up, Mallory had watched the Final Four on television. Standing there in person proved almost impossible to comprehend.
“As you get older and watch more sports, you see how big it really is,” she said. “Seeing the coaching staff and the players and how they reacted to being there was really special. They make you feel like you’re part of it, too.”
The moment for Macy represented validation for everyone whose names never appear in a box score.
“When you’re constantly grinding and getting all of this work done, being on that stage is pretty surreal,” she said. “That’s the biggest venue that a college basketball game is played at. Being in that arena and looking around and seeing all of the people is awesome.”
Even during games, though, there was still work to do. Still, any brief moment of entertainment often became unforgettable. Mallory still remembers 7-foot-2 center Zvonimir Ivisic blocking a shot before sprinting the floor and finishing with a thunderous dunk during Illinois’ victory over VCU. Macy points to Senior Night against Oregon, when reserve guard AJ Redd knocked down a 3-pointer that sent the entire bench into celebration.
“Our entire bench goes crazy, all of the managers go crazy, and the coaching staff,” Macy said. “The entire arena is excited for this kid. Seeing those moments … you absolutely still get to enjoy the games.”
The work itself, however, had a degree of humility. Sometimes that meant editing thousands of photos. Sometimes it meant organizing recruiting paperwork.
Sometimes it simply meant doing laundry.
“It’s obviously not a glamorous task, and people don’t see you doing that stuff,” Macy said. “It needs to get done, and someone has to do it.”
Having a positive attitude, both sisters said, is what separates good student assistants from great ones.
“What you put in is what you get out,” Mallory said. “It varies from person to person. Macy put a lot of her time into it, and I kind of learned that you build relationships through that, so I kind of mimicked that in a sense. It’s definitely a big time commitment as well, and you have to be willing to sacrifice some of that social time to commit to bettering the program.”
“I was doing everything under the sun,” Macy said. “No job is too small. Even if it’s someone saying, ‘I need a coffee,’ I’ll go grab it. That’s how you build those relationships.”
Long after the confetti has been swept away and the highlights fade, both sisters say they’ll remember something different: the people who noticed the work no one else ever saw. Mallory will return to the program next year, while Macy’s tenure concluded with the Final Four. For all the unforgettable moments, championships and Final Four memories, Macy said the greatest lesson was discovering that success can also be built by making sure the people behind the curtain know their work matters.
“What is so special about this program and this coaching staff is that they let you know just how important you are. There’s a lot of things changing every single day, and if something’s changing, you have to be on your feet and ready. With that, things can go wrong, and it’s easy to point out the things that can go wrong, but what stood out to me with this program was that they have been really, really good about recognizing the work that you put in, being acknowledged, and making sure you feel appreciated for the work you do.”
Relive Illinois’ Final Four run: Go to fightingillini.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule for a breakdown of the University of Illinois Fighting Illini men’’s basketball team’s Final Four run.